How to submit work

Jury

How do you guarantee the quality of the results?
One of the distinctive elements of the ED-Awards is that the jury is comprised entirely of experts from the most distinguished and respected design media outlets. They are acclaimed publishers, editors and art directors with vast experience, originating from different countries and representing all the regions of the European continent (north, south, east, west and central), thus assuring that everybody receives a fair chance. Further more, a representative of ico-D is always present during the jury sessions, in order to make sure that all ico-D guidelines are followed to the letter.

When to announce the winners

When will I find out whether I have won?
All winners will be informed by April 17th, at the latest, in order to make the necessary arrangements to attend the ED-Awards ceremony (the date and place will be announced soon). Everyone else will be informed no later than May 27th.

Promoting winners

What promotion is done for the winners?
The event is covered extensively by the leading European communication design magazines who participate in the ED-Awards as partners. Press releases are sent to magazines around the world, not just “trade” press, but rather, everything from financial to lifestyle magazines. We believe that an event that gathers and celebrates European design in such a comprehensive way, is of interest to a wide range of people. All finalists’ work will be published in the ED-Awards catalogue. The catalogue has worldwide distribution and is a significant tool for professionals in the communication design field and the design market alike. We firmly believe that a lot of people throughout Europe use this catalogue in search of business partners. All winners and their work will also be published on this site.

No. of winners/category

How many winners are chosen in each category?
Depending on the quality of the work submitted, the jury may select up to 7 winners for each category. Out of the finalists, one or (in rare cases) two will receive the gold award up to two will receive silver awards and up to three, again, will receive bronze awards. Please keep in mind that the judges reserve the right to not award the top prize in a category, if the quality of submissions is deemed below standard.

ED-Awards catalogue

When is the ED-Awards catalogue coming out?
Each year we try to have the catalogue ready to be published on time for the Christmas season. It is distributed world-wide by the Thames & Hudson distribution channels.

Errors in the catalogue

My work was featured in the ED-Awards catalogue but my name is spelt wrong. Why did you not double check this with me?
We spend a lot of time and effort to try to get everything right in the ED-Awards catalogue, with a very tight schedule for publication. There are only a few weeks between the jury meeting and the deadline for printing and not enough time for editing and proofreading (even though we tried this once). We therefore try to get the data right during the submission process by allowing you to review all your data on your screen and be able to modify it at any time until the deadline. But, of course, this does not solve all errors.

Submission Process

The deadline is 17 February 2017.

Register / Login

If you are already registered, login to your account. If not, create a user account by clicking on “Register” above this text and enter contact data for the person or company entering the submission.

Submit more

Start over from “Create New Submission”.

Pay / Checkout

When you have entered your submissions, click on “Pay via PayPal” to pay online or “Pay via Bank Transfer” if you prefer to pay offline. More payment alternatives (e.g. an offline credit card form) are described here.

You don’t have to create a new account in PayPal to pay online. Read more about PayPal.

All payments must be completed before the deadline of February 17th.

Confirm payment

Payments via credit card or PayPal accounts are confirmed automatically. If you use one of the alternative payment solutions, an e-mail or fax of the receipt is required.

Send shipment

Go to “Categories” in the main menu to see exactly what files to prepare and what to send by post.

Normally this includes a sample of the design and sometimes a DVD or CD with hi-res image files. Each submission must be marked with a code that identifies the category and the studio it belongs to. This code is automatically generated during the registration process.

Arrival confirmation

When your post arrives to the European Design office in Greece it will be checked and cleared. It is then marked as arrived in your account and an automatic e-mail is sent to you.

Jury meeting

The jury will judge all cleared submissions that have arrived and been paid in time. If the jury finds that your submission should have been entered in a different category, it will be moved there. No submission is disqualified for having been submitted under the wrong category. It is simply moved to the correct one, by decision of the jury. This is also the case if categories are combined.

Announcement of winners

The winners will be officially announced during the ED-Awards ceremony. All winners will be notified no later than April 30th.

ED-Awards ceremony

Gold, silver and bronze award winners will be invited to receive a trophy and/or a diploma on stage during the ED-Awards ceremony.

ED-Catalogue

If you are among the winners, your work will be featured in the ED-Awards catalogue 2016. Gold winners will receive one free copy excl. shipping fee.

Shipping instructions

This year all entries will be collected at our Greek office.

Marking

Please mark the packages or envelope with your submission codes. If a submission is split in several packages add “parcel x of n” after the submission code. E.g.
1234-03-22003, parcel 1 of 3
1234-03-22003, parcel 2 of 3
1234-03-22003, parcel 3 of 3

If a package contains more than one submission please list all codes on the package. It is useful if each submission has a separate envelope or similar inside the package (each marked with the submission code).

Customs

A customs invoice should be included with the shipment when applicable, marked “Contest material – no commercial value”. If the courier company requires a specific value for the goods, please use nominal values (e.g. 1 €/item).

It is the participant’s responsibility to ensure that the shipment is delivered to the European Design office in Greece and to cover all courier, mailing and insurance cost as well as any import duties.

Send by post or courier service

State Demetrios Fakinos as a contact person if required (phone +30 210 9593033).

FAQ: Submitting work

Deadline

When is the deadline for submission of work?
The submission period starts on 1 January 2017 and closes on 17 February 2017.
Please note that physical samples of your work may arrive to our office as late as 28 February.

Submission fee

What is the cost of the entry fees?
The cost per submission is 140 euros. There is also a volume discount for 5 or more submissions (112€ pre submission). The submission fee for the Student Project Category is 40€.

Project publication date

Can I submit work that was published in December 2015?
No. All submitted work must have been published in 2016.

How about work I have created a long time ago but only got published during last year?
You can submit that. What is important is that the work has been published in 2016.

What happens with a project the publication of which spans through more than one year?
If you started work on a project that started on a previous year, but was completed during 2016
(or even 2017) the decision on when it should be submitted is entirely yours. It could be that
you submit it on the first year of its publication, or wait until it is completed, so that you submit
the whole work. The only limitation is that you may only submit this project once.

Last year I completed a project that was never realised. Can I submit that?
No. You are only allowed to submit published work.

Based in Europe

We are based in Europe and we would like to submit work we did for an Asian client. Can we do that?
Yes. All European based design studios are eligible to participate in the ED-Awards.

I’m an African national, based in Europe. Can I still participate in the ED-Awards?
Yes. All European based design studios are eligible to participate in the ED-Awards.

We are based in the USA and we would like to submit work we did for a European client. Can we do that?
No. These are the design awards for the European market. You need to be based in Europe
to be eligible to participate in the ED-Awards.

Self-promotion categories

I have created a CD cover to use for our CD-ROM portfolio. Can I submit that to the CD/DVD cover category?
No. All projects that are created in order to promote the creative services of your studio must be submitted to the Self-promotion categories (digital or printed).

Student work

I have done a student assignment and also got it published by a customer. Which category do I choose?
Published student work is eligible under the normal categories (e.g. Book layout or Information site) for the normal fee. Unpublished student work is only eligible in category “Student projects” provided that it were a school assignment. The fee is 40 euros.

In-house design department

I am working as an in-house designer for a car manufacturer. If I were to send in a brochure I have created for this firm, should I submit it under the “Printed self-promotion” category?
No. You should submit your work in the main “Brochure & Product Catalogue” category. In-house design departments that do not offer creative services as their primary function are allowed to compete in the other categories and are therefore excluded from the self-promotional categories.

Selecting category

What is the best category for my work? What happens if I submit work in the wrong category? Does my submission get disqualified?
No. Select the category that you feel best describes the work. Upon receiving your work and during the jury meeting it will be assigned to a more appropriate category, if necessary.

One entry to several categories

May I submit the same entry in different categories?
Yes, a book, for example, may appear in both the Book Cover and the Book Layout categories. Keep in mind that these are regarded as separate entries and you will therefore need to submit two copies and pay two submission fees.

File format

What files are acceptable?
Check specifications under each Category.

Physical sample

Why do I have to send my submission by post as well?
In most cases, the judges need to examine the physical samples in order to make a fair comparison. There are few exceptions (e.g. web sites) and since last year we also offer a local printing service for some categories.

Modify entries

Can I edit or change my submission?
Yes, you can edit and change both contact data and submission data until the end of the submission period by logging in to your account. If you wish to change the physical sample, this too has to be done before the deadline. There is no extra charge for changing submissions.

Alternative payment solutions

In case you do not wish to (or for technical reasons cannot) make online credit card payments, there are back-up solutions available.

If anything is unclear, please don’t hesitate to contact the organisers at info@europeandesign.org or call us at +30 210 9593033.

Please also send an e-mail to info@europeandesign.org informing us on the date of the transaction and the total amount deposited. Attach a receipt of your payment or fax the receipt to +30 210 9523607.

The bank transfer may take up to a week to arrive and without your mail we might not be able to verify your bank transfer.

PayPal account

If you have a PayPal account you don’t need to be logged in to our site to transfer your payment.

Go to PayPal and log-in to your PayPal account (or create a new account)

In the Message field, please fill in your company name and let us know if you require an invoice in case that the automatically generated receipt is not enough for your book keeping. Click on “Send Money”

PayPal will send you a receipt immediately to confirm the payment.

If you need further assistance, please contact us. Please also send an e-mail to info@europeandesign.org telling us the date you paid, the total amount and if you require an invoice or not.

Submission code

The submission code is a 13-digit number to help us identify your work. You can find your codes under “My submissions”. Each CD and physical sample of your submission should be discreetly marked with this code, either written by hand or on a small printed label.

The code is 13 digits in the format CCCC-ΧXX-SSSSSS (e.g. 0234-011-220011).

To see your submission code, all you need to do is click on your “Checkout Submissions” button. There, each code is noted in red, on the right of your submission title.

Local printing service

Many of the categories require a physical sample and/or a printout for the jury to be able to judge it fairly. For the following categories a printout is sometimes enough (see category descriptions for details):

20. Book & Editorial illustration*

* with some exceptions, see below.

If you think it is convenient and worth the service fee, we have made a deal with a print shop just next to our Greek office. If you create and upload a pdf for print and name it exactly “file_for_print.pdf”, this print shop will print it according to the category specifications and deliver it to our office.

Service fee

The service fee is of 3 euro/A4 page and 6 euro/A3 page. When you upload a file called exactly “file_for_print.pdf” and add Printing Service when you check-out, the page will automatically calculate the extra cost (the uploader script counts the pages and checks if it’s A4 or A3).

Instructions

Prepare one print optimized PDF file per submission. The size should be 29,7cm x 21cm (A4). Name the file “file_for_print.pdf”. When you check-out your submission you will need to click both “Add to Checkout” and “Add Printing Services” for this fee to be added.

For the logo categories there should be 2 pages per submission, one page with the logo in colour and a second page with a black-and-white version and a negative version of the logo.

The illustration categories should also be in PDF-format. The number of pages depends on your design, but keep it A4. The local printing service is possible for corporate and editorial illustrations. For book illustrations you still need to send us a physical sample by post.

For the Original typeface category, it might be enough with one page if you use our template. If you use your own promotional material you still need to send us a physical sample by post.

For the Signs & display category we need photos mounted in an PDF-file. The number of pages depends on your design but keep it A4.

Note that the pdf file needs to be uploaded via our site (the burn a CD alternative is not possible). If you are submitting more than one entry for local printing, please create one pdf per submission and upload it under correct submission.

Common mistakes

Naming the files something else than exactly “file_for_print.pdf”. Several clients tried to add the title into the file name, please don’t. Our automatic uploader only counts the pages and adds a printing fee if the file is named exactly “file_for_print.pdf”.

Creating more than 1 pdf file per submission. Please create 1 pdf-file per submission, not one per page.

Creating PDF-files of other sizes than A4 or A3. All other sizes will be automatically cropped/modified by the print shop which might not be in favor of your design.

Edit Winners’ Gallery

Our website allows you to edit most text errors in the winners’ gallery yourself. You are able to see the result of your changes immediately, as the web gallery is updated in real time. This way we avoid the possible errors and delays by having an editor making the corrections for you. It is also a necessity due to the large amount of data.

Gold = Award, Silver = Merit

The winners gallery contains gold, silver and bronze winners from 2007-2015. Since there has been a change in the terminology, the equivalent of a “Merit” awarded before 2009 is a “Silver” prize, whereas the equivalent of an “Award” for the same period is a “Gold” prize.

Log-in

To edit your winning submissions you need to log into your account on our site. If you have forgotten your username or password and can’t reset it via recovery form, please mail us.

In the main menu to the left, please go to Account -> Submissions -> View/Modify (if the sub-menu under Submissions do not open please refresh the page and try again)

Click on the header of the submission you need to correct.

When you are done, click on the pen button to save.

Go to the web gallery and make sure your changes appear the way you want them to.

Text changes

It is easy to modify the project description text yourself. The same goes for any corrections of credits (name of Client, AD, Creative Director etc.). But there are two exceptions where you need to contact us to correct errors:

Special characters: In the past we have faced some issues with special characters (=country specific letters, like in Czech, Polish, German, etc.) that did not appear correctly in the browsers (often replaced by a “?”). If there are still such issues in your submission please let us know.

Error in title: The title of your submission is locked, therefore, you cannot edit it yourselves. Please mail us the correct title and we’ll do it for you.

Image changes

Below the text fields you will see thumbnails of all your images for this submission. On each thumbnail there is a trash basket so that you can remove it easily. Just above the images there is a link named Upload Files to allow you to add more images. For the web gallery the ideal format is JPEG (RGB, W:3600px, H:1536px)

Other errors?

If the error you want to correct does not fall under any of the types listed above, please contact us.